1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a swing-up rudder for small sailboats of the type whose rudders are steered with hand tillers.
2. Description of Related Art
Small sailboats are generally steered with a rudder pivoted by a hand-operated tiller. To avoid rudder damage when the sailboat is in shallow water or being run ashore, or when the rudder encounters an underwater obstacle, rudder blades are typically made to pivot back and up out of harm's way. These are commonly called “kick-up” rudders.
Because the forward passage of the boat through the water tends to exert a kick-up type force on the leading edge of the rudder blade, rudder pivot mechanisms usually include a mechanical system to bias the rudder blade down into its normal sailing position. Prior solutions include combinations of springs, friction members, and over-center mechanisms that keep the rudder in place while the boat is sailing, but allow the rudder to pivot up and back when needed. These bias mechanisms generally work well for automatic operation, i.e. when the rudder is forced back by contact with the lake bottom or collision with an underwater obstacle, but they are often difficult for a sailor to operate manually from the cockpit. For example, some prior rudder kick-up mechanisms require the operator to grasp the rudder blade directly to push it back down into the water, which is difficult while keeping a hand on the tiller to steer the boat.
Other prior rudder pivot mechanisms mount the rudder blade for manual pivotal movement into and out of the water using fore-and-aft or up-and-down movement of the tiller handle. However, these mechanisms use a bracket to pivotally mount the rudder blade to the boat and the bracket is pivotally mounted for rotation about a horizontal axis at an upper portion and releasably held in a detent at a lower portion of the bracket. Although the detent can be tightened and loosened to retain the rudder in a down position and to raise the rudder, the rudder tends to pop out of the detent during lateral force on the rudder during heeling of the sailboat, resulting in loss of control of the sailboat.